


Broken Mirrors

by cuddlingqueen



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-17 22:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3545402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlingqueen/pseuds/cuddlingqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is a little off about Barry after the last metahuman is dealt with, and he gets angry. He remembers his words later, and tries to make amends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Mirrors

“I HATE YOU!”

Silence fell in the lab.

Barry never yelled. _Never_. And the worst part? It was directed at Caitlin.

* * *

  **24 hours earlier**

The gang was back at STAR Labs after a long day. They had stopped a man who could jump through mirrors, among other things.

“It’s like he was… a _Mirror Master_.” Cisco said, after closing the door to the metahuman prison.

“Niceee!” Barry liked the name. Cisco was on par lately with the naming thing. Even Caitlin nodded in approval.

“So, what happened out there? How’d you finally get him?” Caitlin had heard the victory over the comms, along with Cisco, but it was kinda hard to tell what happened during the fight. All you they ever heard was grunting on the other end.

Barry happily obliged. “Well, after he trapped me in the mirror dimension, I had to find out which portal was the right way out. Luckily, I found one that led to Central City just in time. I kinda freaked an 8-year-old girl out when I came out of her bedroom mirror, but she was ok when she realized it was the Flash. I lost my comm though, so I just ran to the next logical place: what does a guy who controls mirrors need?“

“Mirrors!” Cisco chimed in. He loved a good fight story.

“So I went to the hall of mirrors in the art gallery downtown, and I picked up an extra comm at my place along the way. There’s not much else to tell, you guys know the rest really. I shattered every mirror in the place, and with nothing left to control, he was easy to knock out.”

“Dude, that’s a lot of bad luck.” Cisco appeared to be calculating how much bad luck Barry would indeed have for every mirror he broke. He walked away, deep in thought.

Caitlin and Barry stopped. “You did good work today, Barry. You used your head. And I’m glad you made it out.” She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze.

Barry smiled, “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Dr. Snow.”

He draped his arm around her shoulders as they made their way back to the lab. Cisco was almost finished shutting everything down for the night.

Caitlin suggested that the trio go out for a drink to celebrate their victory, but Barry declined, saying he was tired from the long day. She thought it unusual, but she shrugged and wished him goodnight. She caught up with Cisco and the two headed downstairs together.

* * *

The next morning, Barry was... well, he was actually on time. Which… never happened. That should’ve been their first red flag.

“Morning.” Barry said, but not with his usual chipper attitude.

Dr. Wells came over to fill him in. “Barry, there was surge of reports overnight where of all kinds of domestic disputes. They ranged from unusual behavior, like a woman mowing the lawn at 3am, to violence, like a man stabbing his brother when he said he didn’t like his cooking.”

Cisco: “Using Felicity’s upgrades, I hacked into the central city police database and got the names. I searched for any similarities, and only one thing popped up.”

Barry looked at the screen. _They all had tickets to the art gallery_.

Caitlin: “We think that by shattering the mirrors, you didn’t stop the effect, you just split it up. Mirror Master’s power was weakened, but the effect was still happening, just at a slow rate. You have to fully destroy every mirror that was at the show, Barry.”

And so, for the next 8 hours, that’s exactly what Barry did. They found the best solution was to just burn the remaining pieces. First he went to the gallery and burned the pile they had cleaned up overnight. Then he went to every person’s house who had been at the show, and destroyed anything they had on them: a small mirror in their purse; a shard that had been caught on clothing; anything that even resembled a mirror. It all had to go. Every house he visited, the affected person seemed to be under a trance until he destroyed their mirror. One man said it was like his husband was a completely different person.

After 8 hours though, it was done. And Barry was tired. He had been on edge on the comms all day, and Caitlin had noticed. He had talked back to her a few times, which was unusual. Though, it was a difficult task: going to over a hundred people’s houses and finding out who was affected and what mirror was actually affecting them.

When he returned to STAR Labs, Caitlin wanted to make sure he was okay. “You should have some water, Barry, make sure to stay hydrated.”

He snapped at her. “Stop telling me what to do. If I want water, I’ll get it.”

“Barry, I was just…”

“You’ve been telling me what to do all day, I can’t take it anymore!”

Barry had raised his voice enough now that Cisco and Dr. Wells had heard him too.

Cisco tried to defuse him. “Dude, what’s gotten into you?”

“Gotten into _me_? I’ll tell you what. I am sick of being treated like I’m your servant. Barry, do this. Barry, do that. When do _I_ get to have some fun? Huh?”

Now Dr. Wells tried. “Barry, I thought _you_ wanted to help people. Has that somehow changed in a matter of hours?”

“You know what? Maybe it has.”

Caitlin couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Since when did Barry not want to help people? He helped people before he even became The Flash. She walked over to him, and leaned in quite close.

“Barry Allen, what is wrong with you?”

His eyes met hers. “Nothing, I’m just seeing clearly for the first time since I got my powers. Why help others when I could just help myself?”

Caitlin was stunned. “I don’t like this side of you Barry, and I don’t have to stand here and take it from you.”

“Fine! I HATE YOU!”

And there it was. Caitlin felt her heart sink. In the heat of the argument, she didn’t realize how close she had gotten to Barry… A line of silver flashed across his eyes, and she jumped back. It sort of resembled… oh no. Realization hit her face. _Barry was infected._ Before she could stop him, Barry ran out of the room.

“Guys… I don’t think that’s Barry,” she said, much calmer now. “His eyes, they just… went silver. He’s infected.”

“Again?” Cisco said, thinking back to their recent battle with Prism. It also took a while for Barry to become affected there because of his powers.

“They looked just like a mirror when a light reflects across it.” Caitlin paused. “How is that possible though? We destroyed all the remaining glass.”

Dr. Wells: “Maybe it’s not the glass in the _gallery_. Barry said he went into another dimension right?”

Cisco nodded.

Dr. Wells: “Maybe that’s not Barry. To get between dimensions, ‘Mirror Master’ had to use a laser pistol right? So how was Barry able to get out on his own? Maybe an _image_ on him got out, but not the real Barry.”

Caitlin: “You mean, what, like an evil twin?”

Dr. Wells: “Precisely.”

Cisco: “He said he lost his comm and had to pick up a new one…”

Dr. Wells: “…but maybe he never had it in the first place because he’s a copy. The good news is, every projection needs an anchor. Barry is still alive, but he’s trapped inside the mirror dimension.”

Caitlin: “So, if he’s a projection, why didn’t his whole body shimmer? Why only his eyes?”

Cisco: “Well, the eyes are the only reflective surface on the human body. Maybe it’s takes a reflection to know a reflection.”

Dr. Wells nodded in agreement.

Caitlin: “So, how do we get our Barry back?”

* * *

The team figured out how to get all of Barry back. First they set up a trap filled with mirrors and pushed Barry’s projection back into the mirror dimension. Then they used Mirror Master’s laser pistol to get the entire Barry out. He fell almost instantly unconscious after being in there for so long. They all returned to the lab.

Barry was lying on the doctor’s table, and he was beginning to wake up. He saw Caitlin on the other side of the room and called her name. She rushed over to him.

Even groggy, he still managed to tease her. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Dr. Snow.”

She smiled and filled him in what happened. He started to remember everything as soon as she said it. The memories were different though; they were so hazy. What he really remembered though was how angry he felt. Caitlin noticed his hands were fidgeting, as he often did when he was worried.

“Caitlin, I’m really sorry.”

“For what?”

“For all those things I said to you. It was _me_. I know it wasn’t _all_ of me, but it was still _me_ …”

“Barry, it wasn’t your fault. You were under the influence of the mirror dimension.” She shook her head and looked away from him.

“I know, but…” He sat up reached for her hand, and she looked back at him. “Caitlin, I said I hated you.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Now he was standing up, looking her right in the eye. She could feel the urgency in his voice. He needed to say this. “Caitlin, I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.”

He looked like a kicked puppy. She knew he was serious, but she knew she could only make him feel better one way.

“Well, I hate _you_ …” she teased, with a sly smile on her face.

Barry’s face immediately went into that big grin of his. He put his other hand on her waist, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. They hugged in silence for a just a few seconds before Barry spoke; their touch making sure that the other was really okay. He almost whispered the words into her ear.

“You really don’t.”

And everything was right in the lab again.


End file.
